March 12, 2015
It’s Math
Greg Easterbrook’s recent column “Our Navy is Big Enough” in the New York Times demonstrates that one lecture at the Naval War College does not a naval expert make. Easterbrook advances two arguments. First that the Navy, at 275 ships, is large enough to meet all of the nation’s naval maritime security needs. Secondly he states that the Navy’s proposed budget proposed budget of $161 billion is far in excess of spending requirements. That he would correlate the size of the Navy’s budget with the size of the force deployed demonstrates his shallow awareness of matters maritime. In both the case of the size of the fleet and the size of the budget, it all comes down to math.
The size of the fleet is measured largely against two separate standards. The first is the size of the force necessary to fight and win the nation’s wars. This standard often looks first to the capabilities a potential challenger might field and then estimates the size of the US naval force required to ensure US victory. Such analysis attempts to present the capabilities required to operate in a lethal and effective manner. Cost and efficiency factor into these calculations but not in a large way. Decisive victory is the objective.
Read the full piece at USNI.
More from CNAS
-
N. Korea Hardens Nuclear Stance at UN, Hints at Selective Diplomacy
Video
Seven years after disappearing from the UN’s main stage, North Korea returned — and made sure the world listened. Vice Minister Kim Son-kyong stood before the General Assembly...
By Dr. Go Myong-Hyun
-
Video
Defense / Technology & National Security
Which Technology Offers the Best Defense Against Drones? Lasers or Mobile Gun Trucks?Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Romania and Norway are some of the European countries that have reported -- just this month alone -- drone incursions into their airspace. So far, the...
By Stacie Pettyjohn
-
Podcast
Defense / Transatlantic Security
NATO’s Counter-Drone ConundrumOver the last two weeks, Russia has repeatedly violated NATO airspace. Seventeen Russian military drones entered Polish airspace on September 10th, followed by another drone i...
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Jim Townsend & Stacie Pettyjohn
-
USSC Briefing Room | The Prognosis for the Quad and Other U.S. Alliances in the Indo-Pacific
Podcast
In conversation with the United States Studies Centre, Director of the Indo-Pacific Program at the Center for a New American Security, Lisa Curtis discussed the Quad and the f...
By Lisa Curtis
